Trevor Burrowes had worked
with me on the earlier Painting Project. One day he asked me if I
could work with him on one of his newspaper projects using my
painting system. We talked about it and agreed we could do some
good work together. Over time we have melded our two processes
together, his use of newspaper bringing out the graphic qualities
of the print medium, and my use of grid and color. Often times an
amazing confluence of images comes out of the two.

This was just the kind of thing I was looking for when I started the
Painting Project. That mature artists would bring their own language
to the system and their own take on it and go in a new direction.

All of these pieces use an abbreviated version of the system, using
just four steps instead of the full sixteen. The reason being we
wanted to bring out the qualities of the graphic and print medium
of the newspaper. Also the newspaper would not hold the weight of
much more paint than that.

- Pete Hubbard

Over 30 years ago I became fascinated with using
unorthodox materials to paint on. Ply-board wood paneling and cardboard
were the early materials. Years later, I did a series of paintings on
super-thin, crumply paper drop cloth. This affirmed my interest in the
sculptural quality of the paper I work on. A little earlier, I had done
a series of drawings on my old, used calendars, and in these the grid was
predominant. It was only a matter of time before I would discover newspaper.
Here, texture and grid come together, as does dramatic "under" imagery that
creates a kind of palimpsest when painted over.

The graphic images of newspapers are an inspiration for new forms rendered
over them. Straight lines that separate dark and light colors often
unexpectedly turn a form that is rendered on top of it. This works very
much as it does in certain kinds of cubist painting. As in cubism, the
rectangles in the newspaper images work in a dual way to describe volume in
the rendered image (often described in line) while also creating abstract
geometries that go beyond the rendered image. Serendipity occurs with
amazing regularity. I am constantly surprised at the fortuitous "accidents"
that occur; newspaper images create proxy structures that take the place of
modeling. Synthesis arises from the unification of many layers of content:
catchy phrases in the newspaper images, and fortuitous imagery that make for
a double take, multiple meanings. The newspaper work deals with the real
world. We add value to a material which otherwise would be landfill. We
salvage a great reservoir of meaning which inheres in the newspaper's
graphic and written messages. We show that making art does not require
expensive materials. We take something that's expendable and we make it
expendable...but with value added. We exult in the expendability of things.
We deal with reality.

Our newspaper work is nonchalant. We walk on it and laugh when it rips.
Patched with masking tape from behind, a foot-long rip is hardly noticeable.
It just takes its place among a bevy of textures that the newspaper conveys.
A brut aesthetic, gritty urban art is what we're after.

Newspaper offers ready-made formatting: standard-size sheets that fold
uniformly; uniform column width that create an informal grid. Straight
lines are easily rendered by running them along lines of type or border
lines. Sags and crumples are part of the aesthetic, which makes newspaper
a highly forgiving art medium. It is easily folded for transportation. It
is modular and easy to expand to match a dimensional requirement. Newspaper
is everywhere. No cost, lack of pressure, freedom to make mistakes...